Attendees: Dave Cain, Roy Koch, Jim Nelson, Pastor Jeff Norris, Carole Sarber, and Bob Tierney

1. Prayer

The meeting started with prayer for congregational needs and for today's meeting.

2. Facility Visits - How many other facilities should we visit? How we will arrange for the visits? Should the Advisory Group attend the visits?

It was agreed that at least two facilities should be visited. Pastor Jeff will attempt to arrange a visit to the Mars Alliance Church for May 3 in the afternoon. Also, we will visit the First Free Evangelical Church in McKeesport. Roy Koch will arrange this visit. It may be in the evening. It was agreed that members of the Advisory Group should be invited to go along on the visits.

3. Interaction with Advisory Group - How can we best use the Advisory Group (AG)? The AG includes many talented people; we should be able to delegate many tasks to them. Maybe we should divide the AG into sub-committees and give each group specific assignments.

This item was discussed at length. It was decided that the AG should have a chairperson. The Governing Board will be requested to pick a chairperson. The new AG chairperson will be invited to attend all Building Committee (BC) meetings and will be the connection between the BC and AG.

The AG will be requested to conduct a survey of the congregation to determine what programs should take place in the new facility and what the new facility should look like. Pastor Jeff will provided the chairperson of the AG with a form to be used for this purpose. Governing Board approval will be requested to conduct this survey. The AG will determine the method used for the survey.

4. Looking Ahead - When will we next report to the congregation? What will the report contain?

It was decided that in about 2-3 months we would meet with the congregation. This could be at a "brunch" after the Sunday service or maybe the July 2 congregational meeting. The BC will present our progress to date and request input from the congregation at this time. It was also mentioned that we should consider a meeting with the architect early in the process to obtain his input.

5. New Facility - How do we figure out what the new facility should look like?

The first step is to obtain input from the congregation via the AG.

Some specific ideas that were discussed included:

• The activity center should be downstairs to avoid noise.
• The activity center should have bleachers.
• Should we have two kitchens (existing plus a new one)? Maybe we should have a single small kitchen and encourage catering. Another idea is to build a new big kitchen and use the existing kitchen and fellowship hall for classroom space. A lot of thought has to go into the kitchen decision.
• We should look into an all-steel building.

 

6. Input - What is the most efficient way to get input from the congregation? Should we try to get input from the community at large?

As discussed in 3 above the AG will be requested to conduct a survey to obtain input from the congregation. Another way to solicit input is through our web site. It was decided not to publicize the web site outside of the congregation at this time except for the evangelism teams - they should inform those that they visit about the web site.

7. Pastor Wood will serve as an advisor to our committee. How can we make best use of his expertise?

Pastor Wood will be requested to review the work of the committee. Items such as plans, survey results, building details, etc. would be good for Pastor Wood to review. Also, Pastor Wood will be requested to attend BC meetings when "tough" issues are discussed. It was mentioned that his input would be especially valuable when the architect is involved.

8. Meetings - How often should we meet? When should we first meet with the AG?

It was decided to meet at 9am on the Saturday prior to Governing Board meetings. Meeting should last about 2 hours. The next meeting will be on May 10. Also, other meetings may occur between these formally planned meetings to visit facilities. It was also agreed that business would be conducted via email to the maximum extent possible. The new AG chairperson will be invited to our next meeting.

9. Financing - How will the new facility be financed?

Our current indebtedness is about $290,000. Pastor Jeff stated that experts predict a church of our size should be able to raise about $550,000 from a fund raising drive. Thus, we could pay off our debt and have about $250,000 for a down payment on the new facility. We should be able to finance at least $750,000. Thus, a facility costing about $1,000,000 should be within our reach.

10. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Roy Koch